The U.S. now spends more on its debt than programs for kids: report | Thursday Morning Coffee

If the way a government spends its money is a statement of its priorities — and it surely is — then this is not a very good time to be a child in Donald Trump’s America.

That’s because, for the first time ever, the United States government now spends more money servicing its debt than it does on the next generation of Americans.

That’s according to a new report by the advocacy group First Focus on Children, which tracks government spending on children.

According to the report, the share of federal spending on children has dropped by nearly 10 percent since 2015, hitting an historic low of just 7.2 percent in fiscal 2019. Adjusted for inflation, the federal government cut spending on children by 1 percent last year.

The Trump administration has proposed further reducing that share to just 6.4 percent of federal spending, the analysis found. It gets there, in part, by eliminating more than 40 pro-kid and pro-family programs, the analysis found.

“Treating our children as an afterthought has resulted in one of the highest child poverty rates in the developed world,” the group’s president, Bruce Lesley, said in a statement.

“Infant mortality outstrips nearly every one of our peer nations and the figures keep rising,” he continued. “More than 11 million children live in homes that face food insecurity. And just today [Wednesday], the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the number of kids without health insurance climbed to 5.5 percent, reversing two decades of progress. Neglecting our children this way is not only shameful, it’s economically foolish.”

President Donald Trump (Capital-Star file)

During a Washington D.C. event Wednesday promoting the report’s release one expert put the results in a broader, national context.

“America is in the midst of two dramatic demographic shifts: rising diversity, with the highest levels of diversity among our youngest, and rapid aging as the baby boomers head into retirement,” University of Southern California sociology professor Manuel Pastor said during a keynote address.

“Studies show that America’s seniors are less likely to support spending on youth when they are from different racial groups,” he continued. “Our leaders must take immediate steps to bridge this racial generation gap and ensure that all youth, including low-income children of color and English language learners, can access the education and supports they need to succeed. America’s economic security and prosperity depends on the ability of our young people to participate as workers, leaders and innovators.”

As the advocacy group notes, the report’s release comes amid some other disturbing trends:

“The U.S. Census Bureau reported today that the number of uninsured children rose to 4.3 million in 2018, a 10 percent increase over the previous year.

“Census figures also showed that more than 16 million U.S. children remain in poverty, a result of anti-poverty measures that are effective, but are severely underfunded and don’t always reach those at the bottom. First Focus on Children leads the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, which renewed calls for national targets to cut child poverty in half within a decade.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Sept. 4 that 15 percent of U.S. children lived in food-insecure households in 2018. Roughly 540,000 children missed meals or went hungry because of a lack of food. The Trump Administration is currently pursuing policies to restrict access to food aid for low-income children.”

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An award-winning political journalist with more than 25 years' experience in the news business, John L. Micek is The Pennsylvania Capital-Star's Editor-in-Chief.
Before joining The Capital-Star, Micek spent six years as Opinion Editor at PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., where he helped shape and lead a multiple-award-winning Opinion section for one of Pennsylvania's most-visited news websites.
Prior to that, he spent 13 years covering Pennsylvania government and politics for The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. His career has also included stints covering Congress, Chicago City Hall and more municipal meetings than he could ever count,
Micek contributes regular analysis and commentary to a host of broadcast outlets, including CTV-News in Canada and talkRadio in London, U.K., as well as "Face the State" on CBS-21 in Harrisburg, Pa.; "Pennsylvania Newsmakers" on WGAL-8 in Lancaster, Pa., and the Pennsylvania Cable Network. His weekly column on American politics is syndicated nationwide to more than 800 newspapers by Cagle Syndicate.